FACING DOWN A DESPOT

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Pentagon officials have no plans to send troops to the region beyond the 2,100 Marines already there with an amphibious-assault group. That is why, when the Washington started for the Persian Gulf--it will arrive later this week, though its attack planes will be in range much sooner--13 of the 18 vessels in its battle group stayed behind. The Pentagon is planning to use air power alone--escalating waves of ship- and submarine-launched missiles and aircraft-based missiles and bombs--to shove Saddam back into compliance. "I don't think anybody's looking at days and days of B-52 strikes on Republican Guard barracks," a senior Navy official says. "But when the dust settles after each strike, we'll ask if he's ready to let the U.N. inspectors come back in. And if he says no, we'll hit him again." Pentagon officials liken the plan to Operation Deliberate Force, the 1995 air strikes on the Bosnian Serbs that finally pushed them to the negotiating table in Dayton, Ohio. "We'll keep hitting [Saddam] until he hurts," a planner on the Joint Staff predicts, "and hopefully after he's hit long enough, he'll say, 'O.K.'"

Since a serious bombing campaign requires heavy, land-based aircraft--not the sleek little F-18 Hornets and F-14 Tomcats that take off from carrier decks--the Pentagon wants to dispatch 50 warplanes to the region, including fierce, moveable-wing B-1 bombers (which would be making their first combat appearance) and F-15 and F-16 fighters. Marine General Anthony Zinni, the U.S. Central Commander (Norman Schwarzkopf's job during Desert Storm in 1991), spent much of last week in the Gulf region, starting the process of securing bases for the U.S. firepower. Since Saudi Arabia has the best airport facilities, a delicate dance has begun between American and Saudi officials: State and Defense department officials have been in contact with their Saudi counterparts, stressing the danger a re-emergent Saddam would pose to their country. Over the weekend, Albright scheduled visits to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. U.S. officials offered TIME conflicting assessments of whether Riyadh would agree to harbor F-117 Stealth fighters and other attack planes. Pentagon sources considered it likely; State Department officials weren't so sanguine. Heavy B-52 bombers will be based on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, a British territory on loan to the U.S., and B-1s will probably fly out of Bahrain, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates. Says Army General Hugh Shelton, the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "We're confident that we have the capability to carry out whatever we are asked to do."

What will that turn out to be? The first target set is sure to include Saddam's command-and-control and air-defense systems--pulverized in 1991 but steadily rebuilt in the years since. Because the strategy is to make the targets "proportional"--that is, linked to the weapons of mass destruction that have precipitated this mess--the Pentagon is leaning against bombing Saddam's dozens of palaces or waging an all-out assault on his Republican Guard, although locations and Guard units thought to be harboring biological weapons will be hit. They won't target Saddam--"but if we get him by luck," says a ranking Air Force officer, "that's cool."